Ken Hall: 24-hour news bites have far-reaching implications

Thursday

Aug 23, 2012 at 2:00 AM

About a year ago, some lawmakers on a trip to Israel went swimming in the Sea of Galilee. One did so after taking off his clothes. When the escapade hit the news this week, the response was swift. Those who were involved should resign, especially the guy who went skinny-dipping.

Ken Hall

About a year ago, some lawmakers on a trip to Israel went swimming in the Sea of Galilee. One did so after taking off his clothes. When the escapade hit the news this week, the response was swift. Those who were involved should resign, especially the guy who went skinny-dipping.

Last weekend Rep. Todd Akin of Missouri said that he was opposed to abortion even if a woman became pregnant when she was raped. In cases of what he called "legitimate" rape, he explained, the body can help prevent pregnancy. When that news started to spread, the response was just as swift. He should abandon his run for the U.S. Senate.

Both cases provide textbook examples of the benefits and drawbacks of the Internet-fueled, 24-hour news cycle. News travels everywhere instantly and that means opinions and conclusions and consequences have to follow immediately. Then it's on to the next eruption and the next round.

What we gain in speed, however, we lose in the chances for reflection and perspective. In both of these cases, there is much more to talk about, and a rush to judgment or resignation would end the discussion before it had a chance to begin.

Take the case of the swimmers. From what I am able to gather, there is nothing illegal about what they did. Maybe they will go back for the 59th annual Speedo Sea of Galilee Swim, scheduled this year for Sept. 15. One travel guide advises people to visit in "early to mid-spring, when the temperature is warm enough for swimming but not warm enough to attract hordes of Israeli vacationers."

What we should be talking about is the reason they were there in the first place, the ability of groups with a political agenda to buy the loyalty of elected officials by spending millions of dollars on trips.

That compromises their integrity much more than anything they did after having a few drinks with dinner.

Akin's case has even more far-reaching implications. As he explained on Mike Huckabee's radio show Tuesday with the furor swirling around him, his trouble came in his use of the word "legitimate," not in his beliefs.

"I was talking about forcible rape, and that was absolutely the wrong word," Akin said.

Forcible rape was the concept that Akin and several co-sponsors tried to include in H.R. 3, the No Taxpayer Funding for Abortion Act. The idea that Congress might try to distinguish among types of rape was so controversial that the language was removed from the bill the House passed and sent to the Senate.

Akin still believes it is important to make that distinction, as he told Huckabee. One of the many co-sponsors of that bill pushing that philosophy was Paul Ryan.

Akin's decision to stay in the race may have ended one news cycle, but the Republican Platform Committee has endorsed a plank outlawing all abortions without any exceptions.